Innotab

[keepingupwiththejoneses]

Ds3 is nearly 6, he has severe asd, sld and his speech is not good. I was wondering if anyone has any experience of the vtech innotab. School say he is a wizz on the pc and interactive board there and although he is classes as sld he is very clever is certain things, it his his asd that pushes him into sld rather than mld, IYKWIM. He loves playing on his TA Iphone and is really into books at the moment(also loves Disney). So I thought this might be good for his birthday, it would also give other something to buy him, as in the games and books for it

I have been meaning to start a thread about Innotabs.

I applied for one through family fund along with a swing and some holiday vouchers and got one!

My ds is also autistic and has no interest in games consoles, either handheld/portable or the ones hooked up to the tv but is very very good with my laptop keyboard, and with touch screen technology so I thought the innotab was worth a try.

I gave it to him on Sunday after putting his name into the settings and adding some photos of him too. HE LOVES IT! He is so happy with it, he responds to it, he can use it independently, and the look of pleasure, surprise, and pride on his face as he realises he can DO the games is fabulous.

The character cartridges are rather expensive IMO but you can download games and apps on to it and I think the majority (or all) cost £2.99 each. I got one cartridge as part of a bundle off with the innotab but won't buy any others as the downloads are much cheaper.

TIPS

• Argos have a bundle off where you get a cartridge with the innotab for £10 instead of £20 - I chose the mickey mouse one as DS is also disney mad and he thinks it's great.

• It runs on batteries or via an adaptor. I've said the adpator can be used when we are at home to save on batteries.

• It takes a memory card, worth getting for the extra memory for games, photos, etc.

• Poundland sell neoprene zip up cases that fit it for storage when not being played with.

Thanks both of you. To be honest I was thinking of getting one from ebay. I dont think a tablet would last 5 mins with him as he is very tough on things and the innotab seems quite robust. Thanks for the tips bored, I was thinking of getting a car charger too, I am sure you could get one for a few pounds on ebay.

We've got an innotab & ds loves it. To add to the tips, you definitely need an sd card & I'd strongly advise getting some rechargeable batteries. It takes 4 AA & absolutely eats them up. We got a charger from Argos & got 4 extra batteries so he's always got a set on charge & a set in his tablet. Enjoy!

We looked at those for our DS2 (almost 6, ASD and pretty much non-verbal) but settled on the leappad. He doesn't really concentrate on the stories, but loves the interactive aspect of them and he's learning his way around it. Our main frustrations with it are that it's very slow, it's all very american and that the drawing tool on it is actually not as good as the one on his old leapster. It did, however, encourage him to actually use the drawing tool on the leapster and has increased his interest in mark making in general.

It seems to be standing up well to random dropping on the floor and stuffing down the back of the sofa, and the inevitable being sat and stood on. We will replace it with an android table, in time, but don't feel he's quite ready, yet.

Oh - and one thing we really like about the leappad was that you could avoid using cartridges. We've got a few of DS1's old toys which are useless to him because he just pulls the cartridges out.

leonie you can get converters for the micro ds card on ebay for about a pound, so they can be used in cameras and things like that.
ouryve we have ds2's old leappad and ds3 hates it.

They are good aren't they, I change mine from my phone to camera to lappy.
I have found an innotab on ebay, used but immaculate with 12 downloaded games case, adaptor and a warranty till Dec, 2 days left and it is on £38 ds isn't 6 till june but I will just put it away till then.

We got our Ds (7) one for christmas he loves it. The games are expensive but the downloads are reasonable although he has managed to delete two so far!